A New Beginning: Vergerre
Vergerre sensed the Wall’s collapse immediately and sprang into action as proximity alarms wailed throughout the stronghold on Voss. The Eternal Empire was upon them. Strafing fire filled the skies of Voss as the Eternal Fleet entered the system to end their foe that had eluded their detection for so long. Vergerre had gone ahead to defend Emperor while preparations were being made, leading a detachment of Imperium commandos. Vergerre tracked the descent of the first pods filled with skytroopers. Reaching out with the Force, she guided two pods into one another before they reached Voss’s surface watching them disappear in twin balls of flame. Vergerre could sense the danger before it struck and ripped an ancient statue down from the ridgeline adjacent to her to provide cover for her men. Her violet blade snapped to life in her right hand and she sprang into action, somersaulting over the makeshift barricade to cleave an approaching skytrooper in half. “FOR THE IMPERIUM!” she bellowed, unleashing her fury. Vergerre switched to Form III to redirect a volley of blaster fire and rolled forward lunging with an animalistic scream to drive her blade through a heavy trooper. Shuttles screamed overhead towards the lake. Vergerre barked at her men, “Bring them down! They’re going for the Emperor!”. Blaster fire fills the sky and bounces harmlessly off their armored hulls. Jubei’s fire team brings down several of the shuttles but four make it through and land near the lake. Vergerre gathers the Force and leaps up to a pillar of rock, bounding higher and higher to reach the lake. Her final jump brings her vaulting over the lake to crush two Zakuulan Knights with a scream. Her violet blade flashes in small circles, lapping up blaster fire directed towards the Emperor and the others hungrily. Vergerre felt the disturbance in the Force before she saw it. Desperately, she cut down another Zakuulan Knight and snapped the neck of a fourth with the Force. Vergerre felt a shock wave emanate from the center of the lake where the Emperor was and her vision went dark. She felt odd, almost calm as the skies of Voss darkened. It felt like an eternity before she emerged from the stasis. It felt like bacta was in her lungs. Thick and viscous fluid choking the life out of her as her vision was restored. Vergerre awoke in a wasteland. A world devoid of life. Yet distantly familiar. She felt like she had been here once before. Perhaps in another life. She drew the hood off her tattered cloak over her head as wind howled through the lifeless canyon. She could see the citadel of New Adasta far off on the horizon. It would take her until sundown probably to reach it on foot. The silence on Ziost unnerved her. A wound in the Force created by Vitiate. She had left the Sith Empire far behind long ago after being betrayed by her former master. She had led a small fleet of Harrowers and Terminus Destroyers into an unknown system in the far reaches of the Outer Rim. Imperial Intelligence had supposedly discovered something that would turn the tide of the war with the Republic here. Instead, her flagship dropped out of hyperspace to a sea of green lights as her fleet was ripped apart by the surprise attack. Months later she returned to the Imperial Citadel on Dromund Kaas under the cover of night and infiltrated Darth Verrat’s quarters. She exacted her revenge on anyone in her path. The Citadel awoke to a massacre with a murderer already en route to the other side of the galaxy. A lone Sith with no purpose. She had come to Ziost to find power. Hoping to fill the hole inside her. She could feel it in the back of her mind every time she meditated. Something mysterious was there. A block of some sorts preventing her from accessing those memories. She knew she needed to unlock them. Hours later, she reached the outskirts of the abandoned fortress. Scavengers and other Sith Lords had already come and gone over the last few years shortly after Vitiate had consumed all life on the planet. Either trying to find artifacts of power or clues as to how the Emperor had done it. Vergerre moved through the eerie fortress heading for the far more ancient structures that had been built over. Relics from the Sith Empire of old. Ajunta Pall himself had ruled over here. Vergerre descended into the citadel’s necropolis. Something was calling to her as she passed through the quiet halls of the mausoleum. Reaching out with the Force, she could feel no signs of life but she could hear thousands of voices whispering from the dark as she approached the oldest of the tombs. Statues of ancient Sith warbeasts lined the hall casting dark shadows from the glow of her green chemlight. The Sith Lord could sense the source of the dark energy coming from the other side of the wall. Vergerre raised her left arm and tapped into her fury, ripping the massive smooth slab of stone free from the wall exposing the tomb hidden from centuries of looters with one smooth motion. Vergerre stepped inside, wary of traps and moved to the sarcophagus on the other side of the burial chamber. The source of the voices called from the sarcophagus, beckoning her forward. In a trance, she stalked forward stepping on a pressure plate. Twin tuk’ata statues shed their carbonite shells and the beasts imprisoned within came to life, ravenous with hunger. Vergerre’s hand went to her waist to retrieve her lightsaber but found it empty. It had been destroyed in the crash when she entered the system. Vergerre gave in to her fury as the beasts charged and she feasted on her own fear as she rolled to dodge a vicious bite from one of the tuk’ata. Vergerre struck out with her palm, unleashing a concussive blast of the Force into the chest of one of the tuk’ata plastering it in gory paste against the wall on the other side of the chamber. Breathing heavily, Vergerre and the last tuk’ata circled one another. The tuk’ata feinted for her and she delivered a vicious kick to its snout. The tuk’ata growled and sprang forward snapping its jaws at her throat. Vergerre caught it before it clamped down around her throat and yanked with all her strength hearing bone crack and the tuk’ata scream in pain. Vergerre soaked in its pain and fear and the air hummed with energy as pure dark side energy manifested in lightning at her fingertips. With a howl of rage, Vergerre delivered a dozen bolts of violet lightning straight into the wounded tuk’ata filling the chamber with the scent of charred hide. The tuk’ata gave out one last breath and fell still. The Sith Lord kicked its corpse out of her way as she passed and cracked the sarcophagus open with the Force. Vergerre looked down at the ancient lightsaber clutched firmly in the mummified corpse’s grip and activated the ancient blade. The violet and black blade crackled to life. She gave the crossguard-hilt a few swings before deactivating it and clipping it to her belt. It would serve the Sith just fine. Vergerre returned to the citadel’s surface making her way to the old Imperial spaceport. The sky burned bright with billions of stars, but it was devoid of any starships. Ziost had been forgotten by much of the galaxy preoccupied with the threat of the Eternal Empire. Vergerre had remained uninvolved in the war raging and she was glad. Korriban had fallen and the Sith Empire had been decimated. Even the Jedi had suffered a terrible blow at their hands. Vergerre looked over an old cargo shuttle and found a deactivated astromech inside. She reactivated it and ordered it to get the ship back in operable condition. Vergerre examined the hold for anything of use. It was mostly munitions likely to reinforce against a Republic attack. The Empire hadn’t expected its own Emperor to turn on them here. Vergerre wiped a few years worth of dust off the top of a durasteel crate and read the logo carefully. Roderick Corp. Vergerre gasped as a rush of memories surged back to her. The Sith kneeling before another Emperor. Vergerre wounding Lord Yesrok in a training exercise. Fond memories of New Amgarrak the place she had once called home. As quickly as they had come they faded. Vergerre could feel the engines hum to life as the astromech managed to get the shuttle operable once more. Vergerre turned on the navicomputer and an image of a mountainous world burned in her mind. A peaceful world wracked by civil war and galactic conflict. Alderaan. Vergerre guided the shuttle out of the citadel and left the dead world far below as she left its atmosphere. She calculated the jump to Alderaan unsure of what she would find their. With a sigh, she engaged the hyperdrive. Those memories were hers but they felt like a strangers. Almost as if they had been planted there. They were fading quickly now but Alderaan still burned firmly in her mind like a sun. Whatever she was looking for she would find it there. The Force shared with her another vision of the world. Alderaanian estates, some in ruin and some thriving. A single banner blowing in the vale’s wind. The banner of House Roderick. The shuttle took days to reach the Core Worlds and she dropped out of hyperspace in clear view of the beautiful world. The void in her mind sharpened as she guided the shuttle into the atmosphere. She could feel something in the Force burning like a beacon on the surface as if she was coming home.